Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Jeffrey Epstein's Reign Of Terror Began Long Before The Island Was Purchased

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Jeffrey Epstein's Reign Of Terror Began Long Before The Island Was Purchased · The Epstein Chronicles

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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Epstein Chronicles. The story of Jeffrey Epstein in his abuse
0:08
didn't start on the Island, it didn't start in New
0:11
York City. It started in Palm Beach. And from the
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word go, the fix has been in. And that's not
0:17
just me telling you that. We have documented proof, documented
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evidence of people who were involved in the case, talking
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about how Jeffrey Epstein was tipped off before the raid,
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talking about how the whole entire investigation was one of
0:33
the most corrupt in the history of the United States
0:35
of America in modern times. And the person that's telling
0:39
us this isn't some crazed lunatic, isn't some conspiracy theorist
0:44
who's hanging out with Alex Jones who we're talking about
0:48
is the former Palm Beach Police Chief, Michael Ryder. And
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Michael Rider said from the very beginning that the fix
0:56
was in and that Jeffrey Epstein was being protected. And
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over the next few days, I'm going to back that
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statement up by showing you the receipts. And the first
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receipt we're going to look at is the one provided
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by Chief Michael Rider. According to Chief Michael Ryder. The
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Jeffrey Epstein case wasn't just a scandal. It was the
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worst failure of the criminal justice system in modern American history.
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And Chief Writer would know because he lived it. He
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didn't read about Epstein in a newspaper. He wasn't reacting
1:27
to headlines. He was there on the front lines in
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Palm Beach when the calls first came in, when the
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first victims came forward, when the pattern became undeniable. He
1:37
watched it unfold up close, in real time, and what
1:41
he saw broke something fundamental in him. Not because he'd
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never seen evil before. He was a season chief, after all,
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but because this time evil was met with obedience, not
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from his officers, from the very institutions that were supposed
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to act, the prosecutors, the US Attorney, the federal government.
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This wasn't a case of miscommunication. This wasn't a misdetail
2:05
or a procedural slip. Writers Department did everything by the
2:08
book and then some. They built the case the way
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you're taught to do in every academy across the country.
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They interviewed victims, cross reference stories, built timelines, verified evidence,
2:21
and when it was already they brought it forward, expecting
2:24
justice to take over. But justice didn't take over. It
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backed away, and it lowered its eyes. What followed Chief
2:32
Writer has described as soul crushing. A state prosecutor who
2:35
seemed more concerned about Epstein's reputation than the lives of
2:39
the girls. He preyed upon a secret plea deal crafted
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behind closed doors, a sentence so light it was practically
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a vacation, and worst of all, an ironclad immunity deal
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that protected not just Epstein but anyone who helped them.
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It was a betrayal so vast that Writer, a man
2:56
known for discipline and restraint, put everything on the line.
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He took the extraordinary step of writing the FBI. He
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demanded a federal investigation. He risked professional alienation, knowing full
3:08
well that speaking out against the machine could mean the
3:11
end of his career. But he did it anyway because
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what he witnessed wasn't just failure, it was rot And
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in his words, the Epstein case represented the worst failure
3:21
of the justice system in modern times. And in this episode,
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we're going to hear his story. Not the sensational headlines,
3:28
not the salacious lists or conspiracies, just the raw, unvarnished
3:33
truth from the one man who stood inside the breach
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and refused to look away. This isn't a story about
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one man's crimes. It's a story about what happens when
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a system decides some men are too powerful to punish,
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when truth is inconvenient, and when justice gets priced out.
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And Chief writer, he didn't just sound the alarm. And
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in this episode, we're going to hear what Michael Ryder
3:54
had to say. And to do that, we have an
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article from NBC News and the headline ex Florida police
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chief Epstein case the worst failure of the criminal justice
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system in modern times. The author of this article is
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Sarah Fitzpatrick and Rich Shapiro. Former Palm Beach police Chief
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Michael ryders spent years trying to convince state and federal
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prosecutors in Florida to bring serious charges against Jeffrey Epstein. Now,
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the retired lawman wants to tackle a new mission to
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persuade lawmakers to take action to prevent the next Jeffrey
4:29
Epstein from perverting the criminal justice system. I thought there
4:33
was nothing to see here. I thought that Epstein was
4:35
just a lone wolf, and he wasn't protected by anybody. Well,
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the people who actually investigated Jeffrey Epstein tell us a
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completely different story. Epstein found every loophole, Writer told NBC
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News as part of a month's long Dateline investigation. I
4:53
want some system in the future that this can happen again.
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Writer said he believes the state and federal prosecutors handling
5:00
of the Epstein case amounts to the worst failure of
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the criminal justice system in modern times. I guess he's
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just a conspiracy theorist too. I guess Chief Rider, who
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was actually in the middle of all of it, has
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no idea what he's talking about. And we should listen
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to Cat Turd and Charlie Kirk instead. Listen, folks, your
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knowledge only goes so far as your sources. And if
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your sources are bullshit, if your sources are corrupt, if
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your sources don't really care, then you're going to be
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led astray. And that's why I always tell you go
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directly to the heart of it. The people that were
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on the ground, the survivors, people like Chief Rider, people
5:35
who have spoken out against Epstein for years. Those are
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the people to follow, not these people that have just
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shown up all of a sudden taking marching orders from
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who the fuck knows, and trying to muddy the waters
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because anybody out here telling you that Jeffrey Epstein wasn't
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highly highly connected, wasn't protected, and that what we see
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and go down in the aftermath of Epstein's death is
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normal to you, because there's nothing normal about any of this.
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The story begins in March of two thousand and five,
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when the pom Beach Police Department received a call from
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the distraught mother of a fourteen year old girl. The
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woman writer recalled said her underage daughter was having sex
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with an adult who lives in a mansion in Palm Beach.
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Palm Beach Police detectives immediately launched an investigation. They said,
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this is credible, this is believable, said Ryder, speaking in
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his first in depth TV interview. Our since from sitting
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in the room with the first victim, was that this
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is something we've absolutely got to get on. Fourteen years old,
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and time and time again, a lot of reports out
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there that Epstein had three girls a day. You do
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the math, how many girls do you think were abused
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in Palm Beach alone? Then let's talk about all of
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the girls from Eastern Europe that nobody ever even brings up.
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I guess is a lot of those girls are never
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gonna speak up about what happens. We're never gonna hear
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from them. But that doesn't mean they weren't abused. That
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doesn't mean that Jeffrey Epstein wasn't doing this bullshit on
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multiple continents, because he most certainly was. The interview with
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the initial young girl led to another and another. I
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have no problem telling you everything that I know, one
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of the girls told police in a videotaped interview obtained
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by NBC News. Another told police that Epstein pulled out
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this vibrator thing and he pulled down my panties. The
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investigators were immediately struck by the consistency of the accounts.
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Writer said the stories were all the same. He said,
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they could all describe the house in detail, they could
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describe what happened. Well, that's because this is the truth,
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and we all know for sure that Jeffrey Epstein was
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doing this. Imagine trying to move on from that when
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there's been no justice. Now, look, if this was something
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that has already been settled and we saw Epstein catch
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a real bid, then it would be a legitimate point
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to say, look, all right, he's been punished, we've investigated
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this fully. It's time to move on. But that's not
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the case, is it. So until then, respectfully, fuck off
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with your move on nonsense. If you want to move on,
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go ahead, go right ahead. Because the truth is most
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of you people that are talking about this topic now
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haven't been in the trenches. You haven't been here fighting
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this war against these crazed lunatics for years and years
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and years. But some of us have, and those of
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us that have been in this war, the veterans, we
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know exactly what we're up against. And for those who
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are coming into this with open eyes, you're soon going
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to realize what we all realized a very long time ago,
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that the machine marches on, and that Epstein might be gone,
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but his operation has just been transferred to somebody else.
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In many cases, the victims very specific physical descriptions of
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Epstein's body matched, but the detectives also observed that the
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accounts weren't perfectly aligned. That would have been a red
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flag that the stories were coordinated, writer said. The investigators
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also noted something else's significance. Many of the victims didn't
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know each other, so there was little chance that they
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had come together to concoct false allegations. And of course
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you always have to think about that, right, something that
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has to be looked at. As an investigator, you have
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to look at all angles, make sure you're not getting hustled,
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make sure you're being told the truth, and where's the
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evidence point And that's what it comes down to. Where
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does the evidence point you and wherever the evidence goes,
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that's where you should follow. And within the first few
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weeks the investigation was already bearing fruit. We realized that
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this was basically a way of life for Epstein, writer said,
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And it didn't take too long to realize that a
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lot of people were involved in this. This was a
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very prolific sexual predator. A lot of people were involved
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in this. Huh okay. I thought that Epstein was a
10:01
lone wolf, though, is that what the DOJ is telling us? Now?
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So are you gonna believe the DOJ or are you
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gonna believe the guy that actually worked the case, who
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actually has skin in the game. I'm gonna go with
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Michael Ryder. Detectives picked through Epstein's trash and discovered incriminating
10:19
messages on scraps of paper documenting phone calls. She is
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wondering if two thirty is okay, she needs to stay
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in school. Read one the note. It was clear to
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police were about massages and sex, writer said. And it
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isn't just the phone messages. Writer said. Epstein had flowers
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delivered to one of the victims who was in a
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performance at her high school, congratulating her at the end
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of her performance. Imagine that bullshit. You're at high school
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with your daughter for a play and she gets flowers
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or some shit from Epstein. Nothing to see here, folks,
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just a guy that you know has some proclivities. He
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wasn't the most prolific sexual offender in modern history or anything.
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A thousand victims, but let's move on. NBC News has
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spoken with nearly two dozen women who allege that Epstein
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didn't operate alone. Writer said the investigation identified adult women
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who had sexual contact with underage girls and in some
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cases perform sexual battery on children. I thought he did
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it all alone. There's nothing else to see here, folks.
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Klenne Maxwell's the only one that should be in jail.
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And you wonder why nobody believes the DOJ and their
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dumbass memo. And you know, the sad truth is a
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lot of these morons out here talking about the case
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have no idea about the true genesis of what went on.
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They don't know Michael Ryder from fucking Michael Rappaport. And
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they're going to be out here telling you that they
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know everything about the story. They know what happened, they
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have the inside information, they have the details. No they don't.
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They don't even know the basics. But they want to
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tell us about how the whole entire operation was running. Okay, Sure,
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this was a financially successful, smart capable, well network and
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well financed individual who built an organization around them that
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supported his criminal enterprise. Writer said, how come there was
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no RICO? Well, I'll tell you why. Because you don't
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hit your own agents, your own assets with RICO. That
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would be pretty ridiculous, right. You got somebody who's the
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CI and they're up to no good, you're gonna hit
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them with RICO if it leads back to you. Zero chance.
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So that's always one of the big tells when somebody
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of note gets arrested. If they get hit with RICO,
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chances are they don't have any ties to anybody important
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and on the flip side, when you see people get
12:36
hit with RICO, that usually eliminates any possibility that they're
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working for the government. But when you have the police
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chief down here on Palm Beach saying that Jeffrey Epstein
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was the head of a criminal enterprise and there was
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never any kind of RICO investigation, what does that tell you?
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When he was stonewalled by the Feds time and time
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again trying to open that kind of investigation, what does
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it tell you? It tells me see that Jeffrey Epstein
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was protected. And you can deny it all you want,
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but I'm gonna need some proof because I'm showing up
13:07
with the receipts pointing the other direction. So if you
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have some evidence that points away from it besides what
13:12
some politicians telling you, I'd like to see it. But
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as the months wore on with the police building their case,
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odd things began to happen. When detectives armed with the
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search warrant entered his home with a video camera. What
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they found made them suspect that he had been tipped off.
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The place had been cleaned up. Writers said it wasn't
13:33
completely devoid of evidence, but a computer that was contained.
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All of the home surveillance camera footage was gone and
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all the wires were left hanging there. Writers said, so
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where did that go? I'm sure we don't have that
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evidence anymore either, right, God forbid, God forbid we have
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any evidence that's needed. And of course that's all part
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of the plan. No evidence, no crime. They can fix
13:56
the narrative, they can have their influencers show up their
13:59
white binders and act the fool. But if there's actual
14:03
evidence and actual paper trail, then that poses the problem, right,
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And that's why I've told you from the very beginning
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that I think that all of the evidence, anything that's
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going to be damning, has long been destroyed or is
14:15
stashed in some CIA black vault somewhere. But look again,
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I'm not the one telling you that Jeffrey Epstein was
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tipped off. Chief Michael Ryder is telling you that. After
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six months of investigation, Writers said, the local police department
14:29
noticed a shift in attitude from the state prosecutors. Writers
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said the prosecutors told them the witnesses were not credible.
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The prosecutors, Writers said, suddenly seemed dismissive of the case
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and were uncooperative in approving critical investigative techniques that hinder
14:46
the Palm Beach Police Department's investigation. Now this is all normal, right,
14:51
the police chief being hindered by federal agents and being
14:55
roadblocked by them just to protect some guy who was
14:59
accused of a using kids. I mean, really, who does
15:02
that and why? What would motivate you to do something
15:05
like that, especially when we're talking about somebody like Epstein. Look,
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we're not talking about somebody who got in trouble for
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fraud or a duy or something you know that we
15:16
can forgive. We're talking about a prolific predator who, if
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you don't believe anything else about them, was abusing girls
15:24
at least three a day in Palm Beach and he
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only gets thirteen months of real soft time. So please
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don't tell me that this is normal. Don't tell me
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that this is just how things go. Because if you're
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a normal person, a regular old citizen like the rest
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of us, you're not getting treated like this. You're not
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getting tipped off that the police are raiding your house.
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You're not gonna know that something's coming down the pipe.
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They're gonna kick in your door, and they're gonna drag
15:52
your bitch ass out and they're gonna bring you to
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jail unless you're Jeffrey Epstein. That is all right. We're
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gonna wrap up this episode right here, and in the
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next episode we're going to finish this bad boy off.
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All of the information that goes with this episode can
16:05
be found in the description box. What's up, everyone, and
16:13
welcome to another episode of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode,
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we're picking up where we left off in the last episode,
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talking about the corrupt nature of the Epstein investigation from
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the very beginning. This article was published by NBC News
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and once again the authors are Sarah Fitzpatrick and Rich Shapiro. Epstein,
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who had a massive bankroll and extensive connections, had assembled
16:40
the high powered team of lawyers including Kenneth Starr, Alan Dershowitz,
16:44
Jack Goldberger, and Jay Lefkowitz. Around the time writer said,
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the investigation took another strange turn. Epstein's defense team seemed
16:53
to know details about the probe before they were made public. Oh,
16:56
I wonder how that happened. I'm sure it had nothing
16:59
to do with people on the high giving Jeffrey Epstein's
17:02
lawyers information. Right, that would never happen that would be
17:06
way out of bounds. So why was Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers
17:10
having meetings with high ranking officials from the DOJ. Everybody
17:14
wants to talk about alex Acosta, But bro, you really
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think Acosta made this decision? You think Acosta was the guy?
17:21
Zero chance? He was given marching orders and he marched
17:24
to the tune that the DOJ was playing. Because I
17:28
assure you that any deal that's getting cut, any kind
17:31
of serious situation that's involving somebody like Epstein, who has
17:35
donated so much money, who is so connected politically, that's
17:39
not a decision that some mid level prosecutor in Florida
17:43
is going to make. Now, he can have recommendations and
17:46
he can go to his bosses and say, look, this
17:48
is what I want to do, but the bosses ultimately
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have to sign off on it. So if you're out
17:53
here blaming alex Acosta, congratulations, you fell for it, And
17:57
whoever Epstein's handlers are, they thank you for it. We
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believe that the content of our probable cause affid David eventually,
18:06
sometime after we presented it to the State Attorney's office,
18:09
ended up with the defense attorneys. Writer said, because minute
18:13
details that nobody else knew that were in those documents
18:17
were being refuted and contrary information provided by the defense.
18:21
The whole last thing was tilted from the beginning. And
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remember they were doing all of this to protect a
18:26
guy that was accused of molesting little girls. And when
18:31
we're talking about Palm Beach, that's what we're talking about.
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Don't get it conflated. We're not talking about nineteen twenty
18:37
year old girls. We're not talking about eighteen year old girls.
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We're talking about girls in high school fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, maybe.
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But when Epstein was up to this bullshit with the
18:48
high schools, he liked them young, and when the girls
18:51
would age out, what he would do is have them
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go and recruit girls for them, and the girls themselves,
18:58
they didn't know any better. Sixteen seventeen years old, some
19:02
guy says, bring some friends over to give me a massage.
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And to these girls that sounded like a great idea. Oh,
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I can go make a couple hundred bucks and give
19:10
this guy a massage. Until they got there and he
19:12
started molesting them. But the whole entire network, the infrastructure
19:17
was built to make that seem normal, so that when
19:20
the girls will come over and get a massage, and
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then Epstein would do his bullshit. They talk to their friends,
19:25
and their friends would be like, oh, he does that
19:27
to me too. So in the girl's mind, remember we're
19:30
talking about kids here, in her mind, it's like, well,
19:32
if all my friends are doing it, then it must
19:34
be okay. But as we all know, nothing about this
19:38
was okay. And the fact that this dirtbag was getting
19:41
inside information is just unbelievable to me. And the fact
19:45
that more people don't talk about it is wild. I mean,
19:49
if you want to get down to it, you got
19:51
to start at the beginning, right the origin story. And
19:54
the origin story when we're talking about Jeffrey Epstein's bullshit,
19:57
most certainly begins in Palm Beach and this guy was
20:02
abusing high school girls. Remember we're not talking about oh,
20:05
this girl looked nineteen. Epstein knew that these girls were underage,
20:09
and that's exactly what he wanted. But yet somebody in
20:13
the federal government decided they wanted to protect them. Ask yourself,
20:17
why why Jeffrey Epstein? Why pull out all the stops
20:21
for a man who was accused of crimes against children?
20:24
It makes zero sense. This is the kind of guy
20:26
that you usually try to put underneath the prison, unless,
20:30
of course, he has friends and money. This writer said
20:35
never happened to me before in my career. I don't
20:38
doubt it. How many times are you dealing with somebody
20:40
like Jeffrey Epstein. Imagine dealing with somebody like this as
20:45
the chief, and all this stuff starts happening, and you're
20:48
saying to yourself, look, I'm just trying to engage an
20:51
investigation here and bring down a child molester. Meanwhile, I
20:55
got the federal government, state prosecutors, everyone breaking my chops.
20:59
And unfortunately, this is just a tip of the iceberg.
21:03
When you start digging into Epstein and what he was
21:05
up to, it runs deep as fuck. And that's why
21:08
I find it offensive when you have the President of
21:11
the United States out here talking about move on. We
21:14
haven't even figured out the basics yet when it comes
21:16
to who was involved as far as behind the scenes.
21:21
One thing we do know though, is there are people involved.
21:24
Stuff like this doesn't just happen. This wasn't a mistake.
21:28
Somebody didn't just wake up one morning and say, you
21:30
know what, let's protect Jeffrey Epstein. There was motivation. There
21:35
question is what was that motivation and who was providing
21:39
that motivation. Writer was so frustrated that he took the
21:43
unusual step of asking the state Attorney, Barry Krisher, to
21:46
remove himself from the case, citing the office highly unusual
21:50
treatment of the investigation. The man investigating the case asked
21:55
for the state attorney to be removed because he felt
21:58
like there was impropriety, felt like somebody in the state
22:01
attorney's office or federal government was feeding Jeffrey Epstein information.
22:06
And when that didn't work, the police chief turned his
22:09
evidence over to the FBI, and they said, this is
22:12
an easy case. This is a horrific situation. We'll put
22:16
him away for the rest of his life. Writer recalled,
22:19
And that's what the US attorney assistant US attorney told
22:23
us as well. So it was an easy case until
22:26
it wasn't. Huh. It was an easy case until Mukasey
22:30
and Philippe called you and said, look, that's the end
22:32
of that. Kill this shit, kick this back down to
22:35
the state level, get us out of it, because we
22:38
don't want to rock the boat. The last thing we
22:40
want is some unnamed spoot kicking in our door. And
22:44
telling us that they better back off of Jeffrey Epstein.
22:47
I mean, what other excuse can there be? The fact
22:50
that Jeffrey Epstein was being handled by the very very
22:54
top brass at the DOJ should tell you everything you
22:57
need to know. But writers renewed enthusiasm didn't last long.
23:01
In time, it became clear that the federal probe was
23:04
also stalling. Though he believes the FBI agents were invested
23:08
in the case, I believe that this was a decision
23:11
made by brass, point blank, period, nobody else. Writer arranged
23:17
to meet face to face with the prosecutor in charge
23:20
of the case, US Attorney Alex Acosta. Acosta would go
23:23
on to be named US Labor Secretary under President Donald Trump.
23:28
The conversation, Writer said did not get off to a
23:31
promising start. He basically said, in a very measured manner
23:35
that the defense in the case has successfully delayed and
23:37
frustrated their investigation and their prosecution of the case. Writer said,
23:42
imagine saying that this is a federal government we're talking about,
23:46
not some po dunk backwater district. The federal government that
23:50
has unlimited resources, unlimited money onlimited prosecutors, but they could
23:56
do nothing here. They were being frustrated by Jeffrey Epstein, huh?
24:00
Or were they being frustrated by their own bosses. That's
24:03
what it comes down to, and in my opinion, that's
24:05
what was going on. Mukasey and Philippe. They're the ones
24:09
who slowed this all down, and they're the ones who
24:11
eventually made it go away. When you're the boss, the
24:14
buck stops with you. I don't want to hear shit
24:16
about middle management. I don't want to hear anything about
24:19
the supervisor on duty. You're the boss. And that's why
24:22
I always talk about Acosta being the fall guy. He
24:25
don't make those decisions, but the fact that he went
24:28
down for them is another tell that this was a
24:30
big cover up. But Writer left Acosta's office hoping for
24:34
the best after the prosecutors told them they were moving
24:37
forward with the investigation. I left that meeting thinking, this
24:41
guy hopefully is going to do his job. Writer said.
24:45
It didn't turn out the way Writer had hoped. In
24:47
two thousand and seven, Acosta made the decision not to
24:50
charge Epstein in federal court. Instead, he sent the case
24:54
back to the local prosecutors. How could you even write
24:57
that with a straight face? How could you say that
24:59
with a straight face. Anybody who knows anything about anything
25:03
knows that that's not the truth. That a guy like
25:05
Acosta isn't the one making that deal. It has to
25:08
get signed off on. We're talking about a bureaucracy here.
25:12
We're not talking about a guy with no notoriety. We're
25:15
not talking about somebody who's not connected. We're talking about
25:18
a guy that obviously had very very deep connections to
25:22
very very powerful people. So acting like Alex Acosta is
25:26
going to be the one to make that call has
25:29
always been ridiculous. Writer was crushed. The same office that
25:33
had seemingly refused to pursue Epstein aggressively was now back
25:36
in charge. Acosta agreed to sign a non prosecution deal
25:40
that ended the federal sex crimes investigation and spared Epstein
25:44
the prospect of serving several years in prison. Instead, Epstein
25:48
pleaded guilty to stay charges of soliciting a minor for
25:52
prostitution and served thirteen months at Palm Beach County jail.
25:56
Epstein was also required to register as a sex offender
25:59
and pay his restitution to his victims. So that made
26:03
it all better. Everything was all fine and well, now right. No,
26:08
the fact that they didn't go after Epstein here with
26:10
federal charges allowed Epstein to continue to operate all the
26:14
way up until he was arrested. So all those girls
26:18
who were molested and abused after he was arrested the
26:21
first time in Florida, that's directly on the hands of
26:25
the Department of Justice and the federal government. No wonder
26:29
they want this all to go away. I've never seen
26:34
anything like it. Writers said. It was extremely unusual and disappointing.
26:38
Writers said he believes the result would have been different
26:41
had the victims been underage boys. That would have shocked
26:45
the senses more. Writers said, somehow this hit a different
26:48
place and that they were young women on the way
26:51
to being women. Man, that's horrible to even think about.
26:55
How could you even think like that? Like, I don't
26:57
even have a daughter, and the thought of a child,
27:01
a young high school girl, being lured into the clutches
27:04
of Jeffrey Epstein is just almost too much to stomach.
27:08
So I don't know how anybody with a daughter out
27:10
here could give Jeffrey Epstein any kind of deal. But unfortunately,
27:14
there's a lot of people who are sick in the
27:16
fucking head, and some of those people are the ones
27:20
who can make decisions about mine and your freedom. And
27:24
if that's not terrifying, I don't know what is. Epstein
27:30
was released from jail in the summer of two thousand
27:32
and nine. The case scen behind him until twenty eighteen,
27:35
when The Miami Herald published an expose highlighting the government's
27:39
kid glove treatment of a man accused of praying on
27:42
dozens of underage girls. Acosta defended the way his office
27:46
handled what he described as a complicated case. We believe
27:49
we proceeded appropriately, Acosta said during a July twenty nineteen
27:54
press conference. We did what we did because we wanted
27:57
to see Epstein go to jail. All the evidence to
28:00
send him to federal prison. Stop the bullshit. All of
28:04
the evidence was there. You didn't have the backbone, alex
28:07
Acosta to stand up to your superiors. That's the real
28:10
story here, not that alex Acosta gave out a deal.
28:14
He didn't give out shit. Bro has no backbone, though,
28:17
and that's why he should be ridiculed. Imagine your boss
28:21
is coming to you and telling you that it's time
28:23
to let this go, that you're just gonna kick this
28:25
back down to the state. I would lose my job.
28:28
I would go absolutely bonkers. I go to the OIG,
28:31
I go to the President, everybody. There is zero way
28:35
that I'd be okay with this, and any prosecutor that
28:38
is okay with it is a spineless ass pump. And
28:40
there's no doubt that Acosta is certainly guilty of that.
28:44
But Acosta resigned as Labor Secretary two days later amid
28:48
mounting criticism. Krisher, the former state attorney, didn't return a
28:52
request for a comment from NBC News, but he released
28:55
a statement in July defending his office and pushing back
28:59
against acosta suggestion that the state prosecutors were driving the case.
29:03
If mister Acosta was truly concerned with the state's case
29:06
and felt he had to rescue the matter, he would
29:08
have moved forward with the fifty three page indictment that
29:11
his own office drafted, Krisher said, And look, it's always
29:15
been a game of hot potato, all these agencies passing
29:19
the buck when they all played their part. But I
29:21
think the most egregious issue here is the federal government
29:24
kicking this back down to the state. They had everything
29:27
they needed, but instead they pumped out, Epstein was arrested
29:31
on fresh charges. In July. New York federal prosecutors charged
29:35
them with sex trafficking and conspiracy in a case that
29:38
featured similar allegations to those a decade earlier. Epstein pleaded
29:43
not guilty, but he committed suicide allegedly inside his federal
29:47
jail cell last month. The death left Righter thinking about
29:50
the victims and their lost chance to see them held accountable.
29:54
I feel badly for the victims, Writer said, I realize
29:57
that there's catharsis in confronting Epstein, and they'll never have
30:01
that opportunity. But he hopes that the entirety of the
30:04
case will lead to systemic change. Yeah, how's that working out?
30:09
Six years later, how's it working out? Oh, that's right,
30:12
we're just moving on. So what has changed. Nothing? That's
30:17
what's changed, absolutely nothing. The criminal justice system needs to
30:22
learn from this and make sure it can't happen again,
30:24
said Rider, who still lives in Palm Beach where he
30:27
runs a security consulting firm. Writer wants to see legislation
30:32
that bars miners from being labeled as prostitutes in the
30:34
justice system. He also called on Florida lawmakers to close
30:38
the loopholes that allow people like Epstein to get away
30:41
with misdemeanors for child sex crimes. If you look at
30:44
the first dozen victims and their accounts of what happened
30:47
to them, it's clear to me he was coached by
30:49
a lawyer on how to only commit a misdemeanor. Writer said,
30:53
if you're a member of the legislature and you're out
30:55
listening to this right now, fix this. It needs to
30:58
be fixed. Also delivered a message to all those girls
31:02
whose lives were upbended by a middle aged sexual predator
31:05
with endless resources available to him. I don't have any
31:09
contact with the victims, and if they're listening now, I'm
31:12
embarrassed for the way the criminal justice system treated them
31:15
back then in Florida, Writers said, But I want them
31:18
to know that not every part of the system failed them.
31:21
We did our job in Palm Beach Police Department, and
31:24
everything that happened here should lead to in the future,
31:27
if any of these things happen again to some other victim,
31:30
that the system won't fail them. Chief Michael Ryder didn't
31:33
set out to make history. He wasn't chasing headlines, and
31:37
he didn't have a political agenda. He was a police
31:40
chief trying to do his job, trying to protect children,
31:43
trying to hold a predator accountable, trying to believe that
31:46
the system he served would do the right thing once
31:49
the truth was laid bare. But the truth wasn't enough.
31:53
The Epstein case in Palm Beach exposed a terrifying reality
31:57
that in America, the rules bend for the rich and
31:59
the power powerful can buy not just silence, but immunity,
32:04
and Writers saw it firsthand. He saw a case with
32:08
overwhelming evidence get quietly gutted. He saw a prosecutor shrink
32:12
in the face of billion dollar pressure. And he saw
32:15
a man who should have faced decades behind bars walk
32:18
away with a wrist slab and a secret deal that
32:21
shielded his entire operation. And still Chief Writer refused to
32:25
back down. He went to the FBI, He wrote a
32:28
letter to the victims. He called out corruption when it
32:31
would have been safer to stay quiet, because he understood
32:34
something that most people in power seem to forget, that
32:38
silence in the face of injustice is complicity. In this episode,
32:42
you heard what he saw. You heard how the case
32:44
was buried, how justice was bought, how victims were sidelined,
32:48
and how the system at every level chose to protect
32:52
a predator over the truth. So the question now isn't
32:56
just what happened, it's why did it happen, and more importantly,
32:59
who made sure it did. This was never just about
33:02
Jeffrey Epstein. This was about the system. It was about
33:06
the system that let them thrive. All of the information
33:10
that goes with this episode can be found in the
33:13
description box.